It Comes Down Tails
by heartlessdevotion
Summary: They say universes run parallel to ours, where "what if's" play out in reality. Ava Williams was just one of the countless deaths that occurred during the first wizarding war. This story follows where she didn't die, and instead caused a ripple effect. AU Sirius/OC potential Remus/OC some James/Lily. Full Summery inside
1. 0: Prologue

A/N: Hey everyone. So I'm not exactly new to this whole fanfic thing, but it has been a while. I've had this idea bouncing around in my head and decided it could come out and play. Reviews of every kind welcome

Full Summery:

They say universes run parallel to ours, where what if's play out in reality. Ava Williams was just one of the countless deaths that occurred during the first wizarding war. During the summer before the marauder's seventh year at Hogwarts a (mostly) muggle orphanage gets targeted and destroyed by death eaters. Ava was supposed to be there and die, and that was the end of her story. Sirius Black never got to admit his, admittedly small, crush on the girl and things progressed as we all know. This story follows a parallel universe where she didn't die, and her presence caused a ripple effect, changing the events dramatically and subtly alike. This story, obviously, follows an alternative story-line. How deeply, only time will tell

Pairings: Sirius/OC, potential Remus/OC, James/Lily.

Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to Harry Potter and the Harry Potter world. I own my OC's, but that's pretty much it.

* * *

_There's an idea floating around about parallel universes. Some people believe that for every action we take, there is a universe where we did the exact opposite. In that world things turn out different, spurred by these minor changes that can be so crucial to the way things would turn out. In a strange way it is kind of comforting to me to think that it's true. That there's a universe somewhere where all the mistakes we made never happened and all those years or regret we spent building never got the chance to emotionally wreck us. Of course on the flip side, that would mean that there would be a world out there where all the evils we overcame would ruin rampant and there would be no hope in the world. _

_Hope, it's such a strange notion. It is hope that's lead me here to contemplate this. There really isn't much more I can do to avoid boredom. You see I've been dead for a very long time, since I was sixteen. It was a mistake I never could quite get over, and there's a part of me that hopes somewhere I lived a full life. It was strange, having been dead for over twelve years I can practically pinpoint the moment in which my fate spiraled into its definitive end. Perhaps there's a world where I wasn't there, and instead of ceasing I continued to exist. It's a nice notion, anyways._

_The ministry and others always turned their nose up at the idea. With things such as time-turners how could there be parallel universes? I had an idea on this, too, you see. I think you go back in time in your universe, and then you've changed things and you're still playing out yours. Universes aren't meant to be crossed. It may be why using them to go back excessive period of time is so dangerous. There are stories of people who've tried to go back too far, and they just vanish. I wondered if that wasn't something to do with playing with forces we couldn't stop. Perhaps had I gone on with life, I would have grown to be the scholar I've become in death. Or perhaps I became so interested in philosophy once I died? Perhaps I wasn't interested in it at all, and just desperately clung to the idea of fixing things that had changed so horrible when I died._

_Such as my friend, Conner Traverse. He was a pureblood, one of the "sacred twenty-eight", and a Slytherin. In school he was always so torn between sticking with his family and house mates or sticking with Sophie and I. While alive we were a voice of reason, and I've little doubt that it was because of us he didn't join The Dark Lord for the first wizarding war. Of course, we weren't around after and because of that he began to get twisted. It broke my heart a bit to watch him fight on the wrong side during the second war. That was just one of the many things I wish I could do, but of course not all were so well-thought. I also desperately had wanted to stay alive so I could return to Hogwarts for my sixth year and tell Sirius Black what a repulsive codfish he was. It wasn't true, but it had bothered me the entire summer that I'd died. The cheeky bugger had managed to sneak a letter into my stuff on the train before we left. I'd been beyond angered, and had probably practiced what I would say to him at least fifty times before I'd died. Of course, if I knew then what I knew now and the truth behind that letter…_

_I was dead, and it didn't matter. It didn't matter because I would never get to fix things, nor would I know how they played out. Of course I would also never get the smug satisfaction of gloating to Avery and Mulciber that I wasn't just some nobody orphan, but that my true last name was Peverell. That would have shut their constant teasing up, although perhaps not in a good way. The thought would have made my skin crawl if I weren't dead. _

_My father was the youngest heir to the name Peverell, another of the "sacred twenty-eight" purebloods and the first to run out of males to carry on the name. My father was thought to have died before he produced any children, but instead he had eloped with my pureblooded mother. When he did die I was still months old, and my mother was a selfish cow who didn't know what to do with a baby and poverty. She dumped me off at the first orphanage she'd seen and run along with her life. Parenting would probably not of suited her, not that I would ever know. It wasn't as if when you die you suddenly become knowledgeable on all of these facts. I only knew who my parents were because my father found me once I had died and explained everything to me. Perhaps in an alternative universe I could have been raised by both of them, or even just him. _

_I couldn't change that, of course. Nor could I change the fact I was stuck in the wrong place, at the wrong time. I'd been stupid, incredibly so. I had been so upset about that stupid letter that when my friend Sophie asked to borrow my wand I'd let her. She'd been my friend since I was eight, a year older she'd come to the orphanage after her parents had died and could do strange things just like I could. She having been muggle-born and I having been raised by muggles left us both in the dark as to why, but incredibly happy when we found someone else who could do strange things. We formed a bond, and had been thrilled when we'd gotten to go to Hogwarts, happy that we were normal somewhere. I remember she asked for my wand because hers was broken. One of the younger children thought it was a stick and had snapped it right in half to mock her. She needed to buy a new one, and in order to do that she needed to get to Diagon Alley. Having just turned seventeen she was of age in the wizarding world and could apparate there herself, so I'd thought nothing of it when I gave her my wand and shooed her away. I was still underage, my sixteenth birthday having only just rolled around a month before. What good would it do me? A lot, probably, since while she was gone Death Eaters targeted the orphanage and it burned to the ground with the lot of us in it. I can still hear the screams sometimes, and can imagine the fire on my skin._

_Perhaps in an alternative reality I accepted her wish for me to side-along. But in my world, I didn't. In my world I died, and there was nothing more I could do but contemplate._


	2. 1: The Secret's In The Telling

A/N: I'm going to(try) set a steady update pattern of weekly. Now, just two things about this chapter: One, I very much enjoy imagery when it comes to describing the characters. It is also something I struggle with, making it fit. In this chapter(and either the next or the one after) we meet people for the first time and so I try to make sure that you guys can see them clearly. Since I know this is something I struggle with I realize it may seem a bit hard to struggle, just bear with me and realize that I'll only do this in so much detail for the main characters.

Two, I really wanted this chapter and the next chapter to be one giant chapter, but I got to page 6 in my word document and realized with what left I had to say could easily be another 6 pages if down right. I hate breaking up chapters like that, especially this one and the next since they both deal with the timeline changing. Now that I've wasted a big chunk of your time, read and enjoy!

* * *

"_Even though the future seems far away, it is actually beginning right now."_

_-Mattie Stephanek_

I groaned, rolling into a massive pile of red pillows and tried to block out all the noises around me. Sometimes I swear being a girl is perhaps the worst possible fate imaginable; such as times like this when all I want is to sleep in a little more. Instead I'm forced to suffer the consequences of squealing fifteen years old chattering about as they put entirely too much focus on getting ready. Some were even sobbing at this ungodly hour, which wasn't surprising seeing as how it was the last day of the term, but honestly how did four girls manage to make so much noise? I was starting to understand why it was boys referred to us as birds. All that squawking truly fit. Giving up on the notion I would find any solace of sleep in this room, I managed to untangle my limbs from the covers I was wound so tight in and stumble my way to the bathroom. It was a ritual my dorm mates knew well as they shuffled out of my way as though it was the most natural thing in the world. Perhaps to us, it was.

The mirror in front of me reflected an all too familiar site. My skin was pale, and I both loathed and loved that fact. On one hand it fit my features well, and I doubt my confidence would be so solid if I were even a shade darker. On the other hand it made sunburn a constant thing when paired with my love of outdoors, and I couldn't wear white to save my life. I tried, and although my skin was a shade or two darker white somehow ended up blending in and making me appear a bit ghostly. It didn't help when my eyes were a light blue as well. Not in the baby blue kind of way, but more the couple hues off from albino. They border-lined seeming that pretty grey color, but couldn't manage to get that dark and so instead looked a bit translucent. When I was sick it was ghastly, and I tended to wear sun glasses to avoid people giving me strange looks.

Had my hair, which was currently turned and tangled every way, been pale my look would have been shattered. I would have probably grown-up lacking the confidence I have now and instead would have made snot-nosed comments referring to myself as an albino girl. Thankfully my hair is black, and when combed, so that it doesn't resemble a bird's nest, pulls my strange appearance together and gives me a sort of elegance I'm not sure I deserve. Perhaps life felt it should gift me somewhere, or perhaps I come from pretty genes.

Running a brush through my hair I left the strands down, allowing it to reach just past my shoulders as it fell straight. Since I was up, there was no harm in taking just a tinge of pride in my appearance, lining my almond shaped eyes with a bit of black liner before exiting the bathroom. Again it was like a well-defined waltz as the others girls and I avoided each other. I quickly changed from my sleep wear into something more acceptable, and threw what was left of my belongings into my trunk. I didn't have much, and it made packing a lot easier. I turned to examine the other girls, but they still were running around as they spent time finishing getting ready. Shaking my head I fingered the worn sweater and headed downstairs to escape the madness.

It wasn't that I didn't like them, I just wasn't very social. Well, maybe that wasn't it exactly. I had no problem being outgoing when it suited me, but for the most part I just didn't bother. I think I got used to it, having grown up with children always avoiding me. It wasn't something I did on purpose, or even realized I was doing it. I had friends, none of which were the girls whom I shared that dorm with, though. Walking down the steps into the common room, I couldn't help the grin that slid onto my face as I saw only two other students sitting near the fireplace playing chess. I walked over and plopped onto the couch, curling my knees into my chest and laying my head down on the armrest. I would just take a little nap, and get just a little more sleep. After all, I did hate mornings.

* * *

"Darling, you have to get up or you're going to miss the train." I groaned, recognizing that voice through my sleep haze and buried my face further into the couch, which stung quite a bit more than I had anticipated. Instead of moving more, I let out a soft grumble. "Not my mum, go 'way."

I heard a male laugh at that and jerked my head up fast. My eyes narrowed as I tried to find the person who'd done it, but instead I was face to face with my best friend. Instead of looking annoyed, Sophie Devoise wore an amused smirk to her lips and her eyes twinkled with the want to laugh herself. "That was easy. If I knew all it took was Sirius Black laughing at you, I'd have gotten you up ages ago. Maybe even with time to have breakfast."

"I don't get any breakfast?" I gave an exaggerated pout, ignoring both my search and her comment. Sophie plopped herself onto the couch beside me, grinning a bit as she shook her head back and forth indicating I had indeed slept through breakfast. She had probably walked right by me and didn't even try when she'd gone to get food, the cow.

Of course Sophie looked nothing like a cow. While I wouldn't call her tan, per say, her skin was definitely darker than mine. Her hair was also on the opposite spectrum of colors, a mixture of blonde that was not quite dark but not quite light either. Instead it landed itself a healthy medium and she wore it well. Our eyes were similar, though, and opposite all at the same time. Hers were blue, but given the right lighting they could be mistaken for green. They had been once or twice, and by whomever she'd been dating at the time. It had been amusing to watch, for the pure fact that Sophie has one of those faces. She can look so completely innocent if she wants to, but then get her angry and you'll wish you were on the receiving end of a hex instead of her words. She could fight with the best of them, and had been known to get down and dirty and throw a few punches as well. It was part of why I liked her, and we had become an inseparable duo despite the year age difference between us. It worked out just fine for me to befriend the students a year older than me. They seemed to care more about their studies than those in my year as well as it helped me since they'd done it all before. Well, the girls anyways. The boys? My thoughts reminded me to my search, pinpointing the boy sitting across from me, oddly without his friends for once.

It was strange to see him by himself. Sirius Black was not the kind to wander off and end up alone, and he seemed to always have at least one of the others with him. He made up an infamous group of sixth year Gryffindor boys who called themselves the "marauders." It was Sirius Black, James Potter, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew. They were respected, loved, and feared depending on who you were. It seemed they wanted nothing more than to constantly lay prank after prank after prank, or at least that seemed to be James and Sirius's plan. Remus seemed to be the brains behind it, as well as the one who made sure they didn't go too far in their pranks. Peter was, well I hadn't really quite figured that one out really. We weren't all close friends, but as I was always around Sophie and Sophie liked to hang out Remus; it lead to us all getting to know each other on a first name basis. I'd say being friends was a bit of a stretch, but the potential was there I supposed.

"So sleeping beauty finally awakes." Sirius's voice floated over to my ears and I held back the urge to growl at it. Not that I disliked him, or joking. Honestly I could be much worse than him at times, but I had been awake for a grant total of ten minutes and my nice factor hadn't had the chance to kick on yet. Instead of dignifying him with an answer, I rose a brow and gave him my best annoyed face. Which was hard, because no matter how many times I denied it he had such a cute face. His hair was shaggy, but well groomed at the same time. His eyes were this spectacular grey color, and were constantly showing expression. It was probably my favorite part about him, those eyes. I'd heard other girls drool over the well-toned physic and rugged charm, but I'd scoffed those away. Attractive people were a dime a dozen, but eyes like that? It was so much harder to find. Not that I had a crush on him, the idea almost had me scoffing aloud. Just because I didn't want to date him didn't mean I couldn't admire the way he looked. I was, after all, still human. And a teenager with rather active hormones and a vivid imagination. I blamed Sophie for that one, but she would often just wave me away.

"When you do that your face scrunches here and here. It would be cute if you didn't look like you were going to try and kill me, Ava." I jerked my face back, eyes widened as I realized the boy was now inches away from me. My thoughts had wandered, and I'd lost track of the world outside of my head. His fingers were still too close to my face, apparently from where he'd been pointing out where my face "scrunched" as he said. I smacked them away and pushing the crouched boy on the shoulder.

"Knock it off, Black. I don't like you that close to my face." I turned frowned at him, defaulting to his last name in my anger. I stood, taking the now empty space in front of me, and grabbed the bag that was now at my feet. I'd have to thank Sophie for bringing it down later. As I grabbed it I watched as Sirius's brow furrowed in annoyance and for a split second his eyes showed a slight sadness to them, before he stood up. I could have sworn I saw parchment in his hand, but it was gone before I could really tell. I looked up at him, inwardly cursing myself for being so sort. At just three inches over five feet, any intimidation I had was lost as I stared at up the six foot something giant in front of me.

"Ouch, Williams. And here I thought we were on a first name basis." Sirius tried to sound upset, but the ever present grin on his face let me know he wasn't really. Instead of dignifying a response, I stuck my tongue out. Very mature, I know. I heard Sophie get up, mocking a gagging sound as she did so.

"Children, please, can we not flirt in my presence? I'd like to keep my breakfast in my stomach, if at all possible." Sophie cast a half smirk at us, and I cleared my face. Blinking at her as though she'd just said the most confusing thing in the world, I tilted my head to the side.

"Flirting? Who's flirting? I'm not flirting. If I were flirting the entire common room would know. Subtly is hardly my specialty." I passed Sirius an exaggerated wink, and rose a brow when I noticed an ever so slight pink tinge take to his skin. He opened his mouth to make some retort, but before he could his name was called out. With the attention diverted, I grabbed hold of Sophie's wrist and headed out to get to the train.

* * *

"Being locked in a closet with Severus Snape or not being able to shower for a week."

I looked up from organizing my Bertie Bott's, giving her a slightly horrified look. For the past twenty minutes of the train ride Sophie and I had been playing the game of "would you rather." Normally we had more interesting things to do, but our other friend Conner had decided to sit with his Slytherin house mates over us. Not being biased or anything, but we Gryffindors were much better. Still, I understood why he would choose them. He always chose them the first and last days of school, and it seemed to help make his life amongst them easier. Sophie tended to grumble about it, but I understood. Still, as a result of us not having Conner to amuse us, we were stuck in the compartment alone to do strange things. Such as the debacle Sophie had been me with now.

"Can I opt for a new question?" Sophie rose a brow at me and I groaned. This was so payback for making her choose between sleeping with Slughorn or the giant squid. "Is it a very big closet?"

"Nope, it's tiny. Yes, you have to touch him." I looked back at the sorted colors of beans and moved one from an unsorted pile over.

"Maybe it wouldn't be so bad?" Sophie cackled, and I frowned at her, throwing a yellow jelly bean at her, causing her to let out a snort of indignation and throw a liquorice wand at me. I let out a gasp of mock shock, and somehow or another all the candy we had ended up being thrown at each other. We were in the middle of the fight when the compartment door opened, and an unsuspecting boy got hit in the face with a chocolate frog. The two of us got eerily silent, and tried to look as though we hadn't just been in the middle of a candy fight. Not that our overly innocent expression did much good when the compartment looked like it did. Sophie glanced over to a very confused Remus Lupin, and she couldn't help the giggles that escaped her. I was barely holding it together myself.

Remus was tall and lanky, with an odd scar that ran across his nose. Had he looked more rugged he would have looked incredibly like a typical bad boy, but instead it made him look terribly wounded. Not in a bad way, but in the way that made you want to give him a hug. His hair was shaggy, but in a disheveled way instead of the well groomed way of Sirius. His brown eyes were worn, but constantly tired that seemed like it was more than sleep he needed. He stood at the door of the compartment, blinking at the assault and taking in the mess with a confused stared.

"Oh come off it Remus. This should hardly be surprising. One, it is us, and two you should see the lot you hang around." I grinned at Remus who seemed to snap out of his stupor. Before he could respond, whoever was behind him shoved him through the door, before stopping to take stock of the compartment themselves.

"Bloody hell, I leave you two alone for just a few minutes." Sirius had hardly ever given us this much attention, and the look I shared with Sophie confirmed she was as confused as I was.

"I wasn't aware you'd left us alone, Sirius. I thought that was our natural state." I rose a brow in challenge, and he gave me a grin back.

"Nonsense! Of course it isn't. What on earth would you do with your life without me in it?" I snorted a laugh and picked up a safe box of Bertie Bott's before opening them and beginning to sort them. It was a bad OCD of mine, but I couldn't eat any until I had. As I did so both Remus and Sirius took themselves to the empty spots in our compartment; Sirius beside me and Remus beside Sophie. Weirder things have happened.

"I figure I'll get along just as I have with the rest of my life. I've been fine up until this moment." I answered. It was incredibly strange for them to seek us out. Well, perhaps not Remus. Remus was our go to person with schoolwork, or at least Sophie's. As a year below them there wasn't much I couldn't ask Sophie for help in so I hardly had to venture. I could count the number of times in the past years when we had all hung out like this on one hand, and it had never been them seeking us out. Like I'd said, the potential was there, but none of us had perused it. Perhaps that was what they were doing now.

I jerked back to reality when I noticed Remus giving Sirius a rather pointed look. He seemed to ignore it and appeared almost, nervous? That was a bit unusual, even to me. Sirius Black was never nervous, at least not that I'd seen. I spared a glance with Sophie to confirm it wasn't my imagination. She shrugged her shoulders as if to admit her confusion, and that was all the confirmation I needed.

"Who'd you kill?" Both boys head's jerk towards me suddenly and I blinked a bit at their wide eyed glances.

"I'm sorry?" Remus asked, after a moment. I rolled my eyes.

"You guys are never this weird. And Sirius is nervous. The only thing that makes sense is you killed someone and need our help. Who'd you kill?" Sirius let out a laugh, a single loud bark of a thing. I winced slightly, as he reached his hand out and non-too casually put an arm around me. Sophie was giving me a disbelieving look and Remus still looked confused.

"We didn't kill anyone?" He sounded so unsure of himself, but I was too bothered by Sirius's arm around my shoulders to explain my logic.

"Sirius you're invading my personal space. If you guys didn't do anything cool like kill a man, than go away." It didn't really bother me, and I think that was what bothered me. Sirius had a reputation as a bit of a playboy. The only problem is that finding out how much of it is true and how much of it was false was hard. Hogwarts was an isolated school full of teenagers, and thus rumors spread like wildfire. I could still remember the time last year a rumor went around about me that I was a lesbian. Not that I would have had a problem with it, if it wasn't for the fact I was a fourteen year old who'd just realized they really liked boys. I couldn't manage to get anywhere if they all thought I wasn't interested. Perhaps not one of my finer moments, but I had finally had enough of it after about three weeks and had pulled some unsuspecting boy onto the tables in the great hall and had kissed him during dinner to prove them wrong. Of course since then I'd been known as a bit easy myself, which also wasn't entirely true. So where did Sirius sit? I had no idea. On one side I knew he could flirt right into a girl's knickers, but on the other hand I'd never actually seen him with a girlfriend. I also had no idea where he could find time to be so involved with pranks, get good grades, and still successfully manage to bed the majority of the girls at Hogwarts.

"Oh come on Ava, you know you like me invading your personal space." He moved closer to me, effectively making me squished between him and my backpack next to the wall. I rolled my eye, and was once again annoyed I had to look up to look him in the face. When I did so, he winked at me. Fine, two could play this game. As if sensing my thoughts Sophie groaned, and Remus questioned what was wrong. I held back the smirk that threatened and looked up at Sirius, batting my eyelashes.

The next few things happened in session, and at an incredibly rate that the other two in the compartment had struggled to figure out what went on. I had bitten my lip and leaned close enough to him that we were touching, he had taken a subtle, sharp intake of breathe. My hand had ended up on his thigh, and I had whispered something in his ear. The next moment the every so confident Sirius Black had pushed Remus out of the compartment and Sophie was struggling to make sense of everything while I burst into a fit of laughter. To be honest I wasn't entirely sure what I'd said, just had known the voice I'd said it in. Sophie shook her head, grumbling about my lack of maturity and picked a book and began to read. When I'd stopped laughing I looked over at my bag to get my own book, when I noticed it was open. Curiously I peeked in, knowing that was not how I left it. Inside was a note, scribbled on a spare piece of parchment.

_Keep your face sharp, beautiful. I plan to steal your heart when we come back, and it just wouldn't do if you were less than average. –Sirius_

I opened my mouth and shut it, before opening it again. Throwing the letter at Sophie, I sunk into my seat and fumed.


	3. 2: You May Be Right

A/n: Another chapter! thanks to everyone who is reading. If you have any feedback let me know!

Disclaimer:I don't own anything you recognize

By the way, if Sirius seems a bit out of character so far, just give it a chance. Ava isn't like most girls he's used to, and I don't see him as being the playboy he's sometimes made out to be. I seem him being charming, flirty, and cocky but I don't see him having been interested in too many girls yet. Even now his feelings for Ava aren't that deep, but Ava doesn't just fawn at his feet and swoon when he bats his eyelashes. The bad boy reputation doesn't work on her, and he knows it and isn't sure how to respond. You **will** see this better when the term starts

* * *

"_If a coin comes down heads, that means that the possibility of its coming down tails has collapsed. Until that moment the two possibilities were equal.  
But on another world, it does come down tails. And when that happens, the two worlds split apart."  
― Philip Pullman, __The Golden Compass_

Things had progressed as normal for the rest of the train ride, and when we arrived at the station both Sophie and I took our time exiting and finding our belongings. Neither one of us were all too thrilled at the fact we would have to go back to an over-crowded building and being forced to pretend nothing magical existed. We weren't even allowed to owl people since it was "unsanitary." Soon, though, none of that would matter. My birthday was in a couple of weeks, and about a month later was Sophie's. This year she would be turning seventeen, and we had already agreed that after this summer we would move in together and get away from the stifling orphanage. We just had to survive this summer.

Pulling my trunk onto a trolley I spared a glance at Sophie to see her glancing around at all the families. The platforms filled with families either leaving or greeting children was always the hardest for us, but especially for Sophie. I'd never known my parents, so it wasn't hard to miss them. Would they have greeted me with indifference? Would they have swept me into a giant hug and showered me with affections of how they'd missed me? I didn't know, and honestly I didn't even know what they looked like or even what their names were. Instead of being upset watching everyone around us, I felt a bit hollow like I should feel but couldn't. Sophie wasn't like me, though. She'd had parents growing up, and they had loved her dearly until the car accident when she was nine. I could remember when she'd come to the orphanage. She'd cried for days and even when it stopped it was a full week of being there before I heard her laugh. Looking at her I could see the sheen starting to cover her eyes as she struggled to keep her emotions from herself, and I bit my lip nervously. It was like this every time, and there was nothing I could do to keep her from feeling these harsh emotions except to distract her.

"Hey, think they'd notice if we took an extra day to get back? We could explore the mighty depths of London alone and completely unsupervised! It would be fun, yeah? Two lone teenage girls wandering about in muggle London, not a care in the world." I watched as Sophie cleared up almost instantly, snorting a bit and giving me a look like I was crazy. Admittedly I probably was a bit, but she was nice enough to not point that out. Most days, anyways.

"And how exactly are we going to fend off all the unwanted rapists or people who want to steal out stuff? Since we'll obviously be too busy worrying about keeping what little possessions we have safe." She motioned to our trunks before crossing her arms. I pretended to deliberate, before heaving a sigh and shrugging.

"I guess we'll have to become drifters and just never go back. Give up everything we own save the clothes on our backs. I imagine someone will eventually right songs about us once we die. Talk about how absolutely brill we were." I began to push my trolley towards the divide separating the wizarding world and the muggle one. I could hear Sophie push hers behind me.

"Or perhaps how incredibly daft we are. Honestly, Ava, you come up with the strangest plans…" I smiled a bit at her words, but only because I had gone another year at successfully distracting my best friend without her even realizing that's what I was doing. Even though we didn't go exploring London like I'd suggested, we did take an exceptionally long time to make it to our so called home.

* * *

It had been two weeks since we'd been back, and I was tired of my summer break already. Not having any school work to do was fantastic, but the cost it came at was incredibly high. I suppose I shouldn't complain; it wasn't as though any of us were beaten or purposefully neglected. It was just so bloody over-crowded and there was definitely not enough space for everyone that resided in this place. It wasn't so bad when you're younger, because in theory you always had someone to play with and theoretically it was easy to make the best of a bad situation. Not that this was always the case, but it wasn't far off for the most part. The problem with us older lot was that there weren't that many of us and they really didn't know what to do with us. So instead of going off and enjoying the summer, we were charged with watching over the younger ones and fulfilling any chores the workers saw fit to deem us with. Generally Sophie and I had a lot more to do than the other handful of teens, in part because we weren't here during the school year and in part because I couldn't keep my mouth shut and my nose out of trouble. It wasn't like I did it on purpose, most of the time. I just had poor impulse control, and sometimes my idea of fun didn't involve rules. Rules, might I add, that were in place for the younger students and I felt didn't apply to those of us who were older. Sophie just kind of got dragged into it. Sometimes I wondered how that happened, and how I became the leader of our duo. She was the elder of the two, but I led the way.

Today should have been different, and I'd been working so hard. I'd bitten my tongue, literally and figuratively, more times than I could count to avoid trouble. Sophie had done her best to hold down her chuckles every time, knowing I was only being good to avoid any extra workload. Today was, in all manner of speaking, my birthday. Normally Sophie and I would complete whatever task we had to do and then we would sneak out and use some of the money we had on ice cream. Some might say it was childish, but it was a gesture that touched me deeply every year. Sophie had actually started it, about a year after she came here. I could remember us then, all knobby knees and tiny as she'd asked me when my birthday was. Even at eight I knew the shame that came with my softly mumbled "I don't know." I'd told her about how everyone just used the day I showed up to mark my birthday, but how it wasn't really. She was appalled, then, to find out I hadn't really gotten a "true" birthday present as she'd called it. I'd only ever gotten the same necessity filled basket like all the other children did on their birthday. We snuck out for the first time that night. How we managed I'll never know, but we did it successfully and again on her birthday. It became a tradition, and we had never missed it. Until, apparently, this year.

It had happened the night before, when we'd come up the stairs to the room we shared with three younger girls after we'd done the dishes. They were eight, ten, and twelve and incredibly nosey with our stuff. We trudged into the room tired and ready for sleep when we spotted them we all of our school things scattered about. My heart made its way to my throat at the fear that they could figure something out and we wouldn't be allowed to go back. Sophie kept a calm face, but I knew the fear was there. Especially when she was so close to being of age.

"What do you three think you are doing?" Her voice came out too calm and full of promise. Enough so when Addy, the eight year old, looked up and realized they were caught her big brown eyes began to gather with tears and her bottom lip trembled. It was a defense mechanism that had me rolling her eyes. She believed she wouldn't get in trouble if she was crying, and for the most part she'd been right. She was on the short side and had one of those faces that immediately captured people's sympathy. Sharing a room with her made me a bit immune to it, thankfully. I shot her a look that implied I would not be falling for it, and she was gone and beneath the faded grey blanket on her bed before another word could be uttered.

The other two were a bit more of a problem. Haley, the ten year old, had the decency to look guilty about at least being caught. She stared at us, for a moment, with a bit of a deer in headlight glint to her green eyes. Trish, the twelve year old, didn't have any of the guilt or fear associated with the other two. She was bold, and on most days had me struggling not to give the girl a reality check on her ego.

"We were seeing what you guys kept locked in those trunks. We never imagined it would be things so _weird."_ A part of me was brought back to my younger years when we had been called many things, weird included, when we had no idea we were witches. It took me a moment to calm my anger that wanted to lash out. Thankfully, Sophie stepped up once again.

"What we keep in our belongings is absolutely none of your business. I suggest you put everything down and return to your own beds." She stared out at the two, and Haley looked as though she would follow the orders. Trish sent her a look that made Haley freeze in the middle of standing up and kneeling on the floor like she had been. It was good Sophie had such a handle on this, my nerves were shot and these children were keeping us from being able to sneak out. Things change in an instant and I felt that lump find its way back to my throat as Trish held up Sophie's wand from among the pile of books. I knew it was hers, not only from the way it looked, but because I could feel mine pressed against my leg within my boots. I was too paranoid to not keep it on me at all times.

"What weirdos play with sticks? And all these books have such weird titles, I wonder if they would kick you out if they knew you were practicing witchcraft? I bet you don't even go to some fancy school and just meet up with other freaks like you. I think we'll go tell them." Trish stood up fully and looked at Haley to follow her. As she went to walk by, my gut reaction won out over logic. I grabbed Trish by the shoulder and shoved her back. They couldn't tell the ladies about our school, because chances were we wouldn't be able to go back. When we were to be first years the headmaster had come and explained that he wanted us to go to this private school, and that all expenses would be paid for. He never mentioned it was magical, and being as overcrowded as we were sending us off for free to a boarding school would free up slight expenses for a bit. We were told it was for witches, but that we couldn't tell anyone. I had no doubt they would assume we were running off to practice witchcraft, which wasn't untrue but we couldn't explain all the details.

I heard Trish let out some curse as her back hit the floor, and she glared up at me. I wasn't generally a bully, nor was I exceptionally quick to raise my hand. That didn't mean I wouldn't do it, or that I couldn't do it. "Give me whatever you've taken of our stuff and get to bed. Now, or I'll report you for stealing."

"How are you going to explain these books, huh?" Haley piped up, suddenly bold. I shot her a glare that had her shrinking back.

"It's called literature. As you so nicely pointed out they all share the common theme of witchcraft. As our summer writing assignment we are to make up a world and follow it through. We chose to make a magical land, and that stick your holding was used so I could get the proper description out there. Now if you don't mind, I'd appreciate it if you lot could _mind your own business_ and leave our stuff _alone._" Sophie sounded tired, but annoyed enough that Haley looked as though she'd given up the fight. Trish faltered, suddenly realizing she was caught between a rock and a hard place. Calling me a liar was one thing, but Sophie so rarely got in trouble on her own she was still seen as a good influence. Between the two of them Sophie's argument would win, and even then Trish looked like she honestly believed her. Still, I could see the fire raging behind her eyes as she didn't want to be bested. I saw the smirk and realized what she was going to do before I could stop it. An all too audible crack resounded in the air as she snapped the wand in half. She'd muttered something about it "just being a stick" after all, but I could barely hear her over the blood rushing through my ears. The room went deadly silent for a moment, before a passed a glance at Sophie's dejected face. Impulse problems, indeed. All Hell broke loose in the room. Haley had the decency to scramble and run to her bed just like Addy had done earlier. Both were watching from their beds, terrified. Sophie went behind me and quickly gathered all of our things, shoving them back in the truck, while I yelled at Trish. I'm not even entirely sure what all came from my mouth, only that it came out loudly. Every bit of willpower was being used to remind myself she was a muggle and that I couldn't just hex her and feel better about it all. Perhaps had she not started yelling back at me, than things wouldn't have escalated the way they did and I would have stopped after telling her off for touching our things. Instead we'd attracted the attention of one of the ladies to come up and try and figure out what was happening. None of us noticed her until her shrill voice cut across the room over us.

"What is going on up here!" I jerked my head and everything got quiet again. She was older, probably in her fifties, and could give Professor McGonagall a run for her money with the way she was glaring at us now. A moment later Addy burst into tears at risk of getting in trouble, and jumped from her bed to go and hug herself close to the woman. Madam Lindell, I believe her name was. Regardless with the way she seemed to automatically want to side with the younger ones had me gritting my teeth and hating them trying to stick us older kids with different ages to try and watch over them.

"We weren't doing anything, and then they came up here and started to yell at us." Trish sounded like she was a second away from breaking into tears herself, but I could see from the way she kept glancing at me that it was all an act. One she was poor at.

"The bloody hell you weren't doing anything! You lot were going through our things as though you had every right! Then, you break something out of pure spite of not being able to bully us into letting you keep playing with it. How exactly is that not doing anything?" I snarled, and Sophie shot me a look that clearly told me to keep my mouth shut. She should know by now that was reserved to working at Hogwarts, not here.

"Language! Even if what you are saying is true you have no need for such foul language, especially in front of the younger children." She shot me a look and I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. "If what your saying is true why did you not inform someone instead of taking care of it yourself?"

I wanted to snort. Why didn't I tell anyone? Because I was sixteen, as of today, and felt as though I didn't need to run and tattle on someone for going through my stuff when I was perfectly capable of telling them to sod off. I opened my mouth to respond, but Sophie beat me to it.

"There was a miscommunication and we thought we had it handled by telling them to simply put it away and not to touch others. Everyone is always so busy we didn't want to bother anyone over something so simple, but then things got out of hand. We're terribly sorry we got so loud." Madam Lindell looked at Sophie, her eyes softening a bit and I thought we might just get away with it. Thank Merlin Sophie had such an easier time than I did at restraining herself in situations like this. Just as the old woman opened her mouth, Haley decided to quip up from her spot on the bed.

"We just wanted to know who the Sirius person was Ava keeps talking sneaking out with while she's at school. We didn't mean any trouble, but all the things she's told us about him made us curious to see if she had a picture… we're awfully sorry." My head jerked to her as I narrowed my eyes. How would she even know about Sirius? I'd never spoken of him, and I honestly hadn't thought of him once until she just brought him up. So how would she know to use that name? "We found this love letter stuck in one of her books and we thought we'd look for more…"

And there it was. She held up a piece of parchment that I had all but forgotten about until this moment. She must have found the note that he'd left for me, then. I turned my attention back to Madam Lindell to see her face contort with a combination of outrage and anger, and I clenched my fist. Bloody Sirius Black was going to pay when I got a hold of him, if it was the last thing I did.

* * *

A little over a month passed by and I had held onto that anger I had for Sirius. The small, rational part of my brain told me that it wasn't his fault at all. We should have found some way to better hide our stuff, and I shouldn't have lost my temper so easily. It was just much easier to pin the blame on him than to blame myself. We'd been forced to do even more chores, and we'd been under a much stricter watch. Well I had anyways. Sophie just had to deal with everything because she associated with me. It meant that not only did we not get to sneak out for my birthday, but we also hadn't gotten to sneak out for hers. It had fueled my anger, but only because I'd been insanely guilty. Honestly, who lets a twelve year old get on their nerves that bad? Apparently I did. It was three days past Sophie's birthday and it was the first time we'd been given a break. It may or may not have had to do with both Sophie and I playing sick, but that was heresy. At the moment I was laying on my dingy grey blanket, mulling over all the things I would tell the boy when I got back to Hogwarts. Sophie threw a shoe at me to get my attention, the offending item hitting my stomach and causing me to lose my train of thought.

"Hey! What was that for?" I looked over to see her shaking her head as she grinned.

"I said your name like five times. How else was I supposed to get your attention?" I stuck my tongue out at her. "Would it be alright if I borrowed your wand? I want to head over to Diagon Alley and since I'm officially of age now I can apparate. I kind of want to get a new wand before it's filled with first years."

There was a faint red tinge to her cheeks, as though the whole ordeal was embarrassing to her. I guess I could see how it would be, and even more if she had to get a new wand in front of a bunch of first years. I looked around and made sure I didn't hear anyone coming before I pulled my wand out from behind my pillow and tossing it to her. "Have fun."

I closed my eyes before I felt a person looming over me. Cracking my eyes I saw Sophie standing there with her bag on her side, hands on her hips. "Come with me. What else are you going to do, stay here?"

"I'll be fine here." I thought about it, and grinned. "Even more than fine. I'll have the whole room to myself and I'll get to finally plot my revenge without anyone shooting me disapproving glances or interrupting my train of thought."

Sophie looked reluctant, but gave in and nodded. Taking a step back she closed her eyes to focus on apparating, when she suddenly opened them again. "We could get ice cream."

I opened my mouth to tell her that no, really, I would stay when a thought struck me. Maybe she didn't want to go alone? Here I was being a bad friend just because I didn't want to side-along. Sure it was uncomfortable, but part of why she had to get a new wand was my fault. I could deal with the discomfort so she wouldn't have to wander alone. Making a show of it, I got up and tugged my boots on over my stockings and grabbed my backpack that contained all my wizarding money. "Alright then, for the ice cream."

Sophie let out a squeak of happiness. She immediately started to cough to try and cover it, but I heard it clear as day. Grabbing my arm she closed her eyes again and this time the feeling overtook us both. I truthfully hated the whole process, and it always gave me a bit of a headache. When we arrived with a loud crack, I made a show of checking my face to make sure everything was where it was supposed to be. Sophie shot me a mock glare and handed me back my wand. Without another word the two of us headed towards Ollivander's. After Ollivander questioned Sophie as to why she needed a new wand, the process didn't take too long. Apparently knowing her old wand had made it a bit simpler, but he did seem a little upset that it had been snapped in half. I wanted to say that we all were, but better judgment kept my mouth shut. Once we'd gotten that, Sophie paid and we made our way to Florean Fortescue's.

"So, I think we should get double scoops since we missed it on both of our birthday." Sophie said suddenly on our walk. I glanced over at her and smiled, nodding. My smile shifted a bit and I looked down at the floor.

"Sorry about losing my temper. I just.." I started but she interrupted me.

"You just defended me. No need to apologize for that. Trish was being rotten, and that was bloody fantastic."

"That was? I thought the way you about had us out of trouble was much more brilliant! Merlin's beard, had Haley not piped up about that stupid note we would have been in the clear. This is why I shall never have children. Bloody messes, all of them."

Sophie laughed, and I found myself joining in. It was so hard to be carefree like this during the summers. It was hard having to hide such a big part of yourself, and now it was harder with all this war mess going on. Death Eaters, they called themselves, were terrorizing people. Well, muggle-borns, muggles, and blood traitors. Lately they'd gotten loud and it was a bit nerve wracking to not know what was going on. I tried not to think about it, but it was terrifying. I shook away the bad thoughts as we reached the ice cream parlour. I cast a smile over at Sophie. "I do believe, since you turned seventeen, you should have three scoops. My treat."

Sophie grinned, linking an arm with me as we both walked inside. "Only if I get to buy yours."

So I bought Sophie's three consisting of butterbeer, dragon blood, and lemondrop. Mine were just two scoops of plain vanilla, and in turn we made fun of each other's choices. She told me I was dull, and I told her she was disgusting. I felt incredibly justified in my statement, and in retaliation she got all three flavors on her spoon and took a big bite. I shuddered.

"Your looney, you know that? I pity the boy that ever goes to kiss you after you've eaten one of your strange concoctions." Sophie stuck her tongue out at me and laughed.

"Oh, right, please tell me how I'm the loon when you're the only who believes in, what was it? Dinglehoppers?" I took a bite of my own ice cream before dignifying her with a response.

"Are you talking about a nargle? Because the two sound nothing alike, love. And I'm not a loon for thinking that! Honestly, how many of your things have gone missing and you've not been able to find them?"

"I believe that's called losing them, and I doubt there was any foul play there." She responded, as we had this argument for what felt like the hundredth time.

"But I would never have lost my Holyhead Harpies sweater. _It's the harpies_." Sophie waved her hand away as if I'd just said nothing of important. Sophie didn't like quidditch like I did. While she loved watching the game, she detested when I forced her to play with Conner and I. Something about how it was completely unsafe.

"Speaking of, why don't you try out for the team this year? Our team lost a beater, and we both know you'd do a brill job."

"Because we both know that I don't feel confident enough since I can't exactly practice anywhere but school."

"You play quidditch?" That voice belonged to a man, and I hate to admit that I screamed like the girl I am, and nearly fell from my chair. In defense, one does not expect to hear the voice of a guy that close to your ear when you're engaged in a rather heated conversation with your best friend. Especially not that close. I turned my head to the side and came face with face with the one and only Sirius Black. As if I needed more of a reason to hate him. I'm not sure how I hadn't heard both him and James Potter draw up a chair and sit next to us at the table, but I hadn't. I felt my cheeks heat with embarrassment as a shot a glare to my laughing best friend. Apparently she had, and had just neglected to warn me. I slouched down into my chair. I turned to look at both new comers, noticing that Sophie hadn't been the only one laughing. James wasn't even trying to hide the grin on his lips and I found I wasn't really mad at any of them. Well, except perhaps Sirius. "Oh stop laughing and eating your disgusting concoction, you cow. It's melting."

James Potter was the one I would always expect to be with Sirius. The boys were about as inseparable as Sophie and I were. His hair was disheveled as normal, and I was beyond the point where I wondered if he did it on purpose. I am almost certain he did. It was shorter than Sirius, and shorter than even Remus's had been. He wore glasses that covered his hazel eyes, but he was genuinely a pretty happy guy. He didn't seem as fit as Sirius, but that was mostly because he was leaner than the other. Anyone who knew of him knew he was obsessed with quidditch, and having been around him thanks to Sophie needing Remus's help I knew that obsession was only slightly less than his obsession with Lily.

I sat back straighter, forcing myself to remember how angry I was at Sirius. It was a bit harder with him in person as I realized it wasn't like he'd really done anything wrong. The children we roomed with had just found some unsuspecting reason to pin us back into trouble and had used his note to do it. Even if I had been upset over what was originally written it didn't warrant the degree of anger I'd been giving it. I stared at my ice cream and it stared back at me almost guiltily.

"So you play?" It was James that broke the silence that had fallen on the table and I looked over at him. Taking a bite of ice cream I thought over my words.

"Well, I like to. I'm not the best, though. I don't get to practice when we're home for the summer, and I can only play when I can force both Sophie here and our other friend Conner to play. I'd say I'm subpar at best." It was honest, and I didn't notice the snort that Sirius let out at the mention of Conner's name. I let it slide, this time, and only graced him with narrowed eyes.

"I can't imagine not being able to play during summers. Bloody hell, I mean that's when most of the practicing gets done because there's just so much time and-ow!" James glanced over at Sirius who was looking ahead as he had been the entire time. Sophie and I passed a look between each other and I rolled my eyes. Honestly, this was getting a bit annoying. Between Sirius acting weird and the note he'd given me. Oh, right, that did make sense.

"By the way, anymore ridiculous notes you'd like to leave in my stuff, I would appreciate you not signing it. Stunts like that get me in trouble." I took a bite of the last of my ice cream to see Sophie trying to hurry and finish hers. Sirius's eyes perked up at the mention of the note. A confident smirk fell on his lips.

"So you did see it then? Bloody brilliant way I hid it, in all my charm-"

I cut him off, shaking my head. "Strange, and a bit cowardly. Not what I would expect from the great and cocky Sirius Black. Straightforward is a much better way to go. And honestly, you were a bit uncouth in the way you wrote it. You essentially disregarded my personality entirely and instead focused on my looks. Perhaps if I were much more vain and daft I would have been thrilled with it. Instead it rather pissed me off. Best of luck next time, though. You ready to go, Sophie?" I didn't wait for a response, leaving the open mouthed Sirius Black sitting there as I took my trash and walked away. James had started laughing by the time Sophie came up behind me, and I couldn't help the small smile that fell on my lips.

"Go easy on him, Ava. I don't think he's used to girls who speak their mind. He almost seems nervous around you." Sophie spoke once we got outside. We'd stayed out longer than we'd planned, and I could only hope we wouldn't get in too much trouble. I looked at her and shrugged.

"I noticed that. I don't know, I feel like it would do his ego good. He's gotten used to being able to charm people way too easily. I'm a bit of a challenge, you know?" I stretched my arms out above my head as I spoke.

"He might like that." Sophie said as she prepared to apparate us. "You might, too."

She didn't give me a chance to respond before we left with a loud crack. We'd decided earlier it would be best to come back around the back tree, that way no one would see us appear out of thin air. It didn't matter, because when we got back we were greeted with an ugly site. The orphanage was on fire, and high in the sky above the building loomed a mark I'd only ever seen in the Prophet. The Dark Mark. Sophie collapsed to her knees beside me, gasping and crying. I held her as she did so, numb and uncertain. That could have been us. That was almost me. The reality of it all came crashing in waves.


	4. 3: Wind of Change

A/N: I want to first apologize for how long this is. And then I want to thank everything who is reading/following/ has messaged me. It makes my day, for real.

I also didn't think about how confusing my time jumps could be, so here's a timeline of events. I'm basing my idea of when the students are let off from the Harry Potter wiki, which says all students return home the third week of June. I then picked a day and used a calendar from 1977 to make sure everything fell right.

Thursday June 16th the Hogwarts Express Arrives back in London, all students return home.

Friday July 1st Ava turns sixteen and Sophie's wand gets broken.

Wednesday August 10th Sophie turns seventeen

Saturday August 13th the orphanage gets attacked while Sophie and Ava are out

Sorry this chapter. I wasn't sure how it was going to go, and then neither Ava nor Sophie wanted to talk much about what happened. Good news is next chapter is Hogwarts!

A final and **very important** note for this chapter is that it gets pretty graphic pretty early. I didn't intend this, but Ava kind of took over. It seems a lot worse than it probably is because this is in Ava's point of view, and this is her first real taste of the war. Still, it **is**war. I don't feel like anything is horribly bad, but if you get to where you don't want to read about the death they are running into they just know it's incredibly traumatic for them and jump down to the first divide. Anything you missed that was important will catch you up there. Now that this incredibly long Author's Note is over, continue on with the story!

* * *

_"The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance" _

_-Alan Watts_

I'm not sure how long we stood there, Sophie desperately clinging to me as sobs overtook her. I just held her, forcing emotions down until I was allowed to break as well. One of us had to be strong, and in this instant it was me. It felt like forever when reason kicked in and I suddenly tensed. They could still be here, and if that was the case I needed to get Sophie quiet and keep us safe. We were far enough away that if they were still around they wouldn't have heard us, but only if they were still inside. Survival instincts began to take over.

"Sophie, love, I need you to stop crying." I made soft shushing noises as I crouched down beside her. She looked at me with blotchy eyes, as she unsuccessfully tried to stop and communicate at the same time. "They could still be here, we're going to have to go check."

That hadn't been the plan. The plan was that we were supposed to be quiet and hide until it was safe, but yet I felt the words tumble from my lips before I had time to process it. Sophie managed to quiet her sobs, but tears still fell down her cheeks. There was a fear in her eyes, but she nodded in agreement as we both rose to our feet and got our wands ready. Logic and reason shouted at me that the building was on fire and that the idea of facing death eaters was maddening, but I shoved it down into the pit of numb I'd developed. It was stupid of us, but it felt incredibly _right_. We were the only witches in the place, everyone else was a muggle. They didn't deserve this, and they had no way of knowing that horrors such as these didn't just reside in their nightmares. If we could manage to get anyone out it would be worth it. Steeling ourselves we snuck from the tree and clung to whatever shadows we could find. Thankfully it was a cloudy day, but the fact still stood we had a few hours before it was actually dark. These guys were incredibly brave to do this during the day, or incredibly stupid. I was seriously hoping for the latter as we managed to make it into the back door. Nothing prepared me for the site that greeted me, and I tried to double back and stop Sophie from coming in but it was too late.

We both just stared at the bodies. The backdoor led us straight into the sitting room, where most of the children would have been. All I could see where the eyes that stared up at me, fear and confusion laced in them all. There were small children, ages as young as five at least, to adults who were watching them. I didn't know death had an immediate smell, nor did I know dark magic did. I could smell them, though, permeating through the air in a toxic combination that had me afraid to breath. Maybe they weren't really there and I was imaging the smell, but to me it was here. My stomach lurched and I gagged. It was the first motion either of us had done since we'd gotten inside. Sophie mumbled before she were bent over, retching up the contents of her stomach. The only comfort I could offer her was to hold her hair back as I struggled not to join her. Whatever we'd been expecting it hadn't been this, and I wasn't sure we were going to be much help if every room we came upon was the same. It was in this moment that I realized how bad of an idea this truly was, but before I could voice my fear Sophie gathered herself and stood fully. She looked at me and I nodded slowly. We would continue, then.

Every room we went to was the same, and despite whatever walls I had built throughout the years I found tears streaming down my eyes. Nothing could have prepared us for these horrors, and I felt an immense sadness despite all my attempts not to. No one deserved to die like this, no one. We made it to the stairs connecting the third story when a new smell hit us again. The smell of burning wood mixed with flesh. Fear stabbed at my heart and Sophie and I stared at each other wide eyed. We both fought the urge to get sick as we realized the position we were in and how bad of an idea this was. The building was on fire, and while it was only the top stories we had to wonder how long it would be before it collapsed on us. We'd gotten incredibly lucky so far, but luck could run out. My head felt fuzzy from the smoke that was coming down, and I wasn't prepared anymore. Where was that Gryffindor courage I'd been showing off just a few minutes earlier? It was slowly being swallowed by fear of all that was around us.

"We need to get out of here, now." My voice shook, and I could feel my fingers trembling. Sophie was unnaturally pale and she nodded. We turned to go back the way we'd come from when we heard the sound of footsteps coming from the direction we needed to go. I froze, fear paralyzing me in that moment. Sophie held out her wand, but her hand shook violently and I wasn't sure that either of us would be able to successfully cast a spell right now. The footsteps got louder and I forced my hand to move and to hold my wand out and waited. We expected to see a masked figure, and instead were met with an equally cautious wizard with a face we could see. I didn't really pay attention to what he looked like, only that I could see his face. If we could see him, then he wasn't a death eater. He seemed to realize we weren't, either, and lowered his wand. Letting out some curse he shouted back at somebody.

"I found a couple of kids. The rest of the building is on fire and everything is clear. I'm going to get them out of here." An auror, then. I hoped, at least. At this point I didn't care so long as we didn't have to be in charge anymore. He grabbed both of our arms and we were gone with a loud crack.

* * *

I never did catch that auror's name. It didn't really matter, in the long run. We'd been dropped off at 's and I guess he told the nurse at the reception desk what had happened. Originally she ushered us up to the fourth floor for spell damage to make sure neither Sophie or I were suffering any. Neither one of us could speak properly to explain that we hadn't actually been there at first, but after the healer examined us and gave us the all clear a couple hours later we finally found our voices. It was strange, the healers seemed as unsure what to do as we were. In the end they let us stay on the fifth floor, where the visitors stayed, and told us in a couple of days they would send a special kind of healer to make sure that we were okay mentally. I'd been worried that since Sophie was technically of age they wouldn't be as nice to her, but apparently going through what we went through earned us some sympathy votes.

The strangest thing was that neither Sophie or I had really spoken at all. Not to the healers, and not to each other. It was a little scary, but I couldn't find it in myself to speak to break the spell. We were still in a sense of shock. I didn't know about her, but I knew I hadn't really been paying attention to this person rising up. Voldemort, they said his name was. I people talked about it at school and we had seen students in the past year or so go missing, but it hadn't affected us directly yet. It hadn't hit anyone we knew, and while we knew we weren't purebloods and therefore we were at risk; it had never hit us. Now it had hit home, literally and figuratively. Finally after two days of us going through the motions of living, Sophie broke. We'd been sitting in the cafeteria, wearing the same clothes from that day as I picked at my cup of pudding and she picked at her fruit. Sophie jerked her head up suddenly, her eyes piercing into mine. I was a little afraid of what would come out of her mouth, and ended up staring like a deer when she finally blurted something out.

"We can't live like this." I blinked, and apparently that wasn't the proper answer. "We aren't living, we're walking around like zombies. We are also wearing the same clothes for the third day in a row. We need to do something."

"We can we do?" I hated being a pessimist. Unfortunately, optimism wasn't always my strong point and for the most part I was a realist. I fell in the wing of the other extremes sometimes, and while I often acted optimistic and cocky I was generally internally a true realist. I didn't have it in me right now to fake it for her. "We have no other clothes, everything we had is piles of ash. I don't know what to do."

"I can access my parents funds…" Sophie stated, her voice softer as it was clear she didn't want to think of why our things were in ashes. Truthfully I didn't either, but I couldn't stop. The images kept plowing through my mind and I was having trouble sleeping at night because of it. I wasn't the only one, judging by how tired the blonde across from me looked. If I looked half as tired as her then I knew between us we made up half of a decent looking human being.

"You can't do that, both literally and figuratively. Besides, you know you're going to need what you have to replace your own supplies." I rubbed my arms as I tried to think of what to do. The muggle government was still in charge of Sophie's inheritance, what little it was, because her parents had been muggles. She still only got stipends despite the fact in the wizarding world she was of age. It was why we didn't rush to move her out on her birthday. Her parents hadn't been rich, but their funds and their life insurance had been enough to put her through school so far, and we knew she would have some left over at the end. It would work now to replace her stuff, but I knew Sophie. She would try and replace mine, too, and if she did that she wouldn't have enough money for what she needed. I couldn't let her do that.

"But you can't just go around with one set of clothes, either. And what about your books? We have to do something…"Sophie had her back to the door, and so she didn't see the person approaching like I did. The man was old, although how old I wasn't sure. Albus Dumbledore was like that, seeming both an all-knowing ancient man and a regular aged elder. His long white beard was a bit of a trademark as was his equally long white hair. He was wearing black robes, and I tried to figure to figure out why our headmaster was here.

"How right you are Miss Devoise. I believe, in this instance, I may be of assistance." Dumbledore's voice broke over the small silence that had spilled between us. At the sound Sophie jumped and jerked around, eyes wide, and I couldn't help the smile that broke across my face. The motion hurt, but felt good all at the same time.

"S-sir? Professor Dumbledore? I, uh, you, er, what? I mean…" Sophie flushed, not normally one to be stuck on words. "Why are you here, sir? Oh! Not like that I just mean, that was rather rude of me."

"Brilliant Sophie. I would suggest the whole closing your mouth bit might actually work better for you." I teased lightly and she shot me a glare, before Dumbledore cleared his throat. We both gave him our attention again.

"I am here, because I was informed two of my students homes had been destroyed in an attack by death eaters and here you are." I think we both looked confused, because he smiled a bit and continued. "Hogwarts is not home to as many orphans as you would think. Most stay with a relative, or end up in a wizarding orphanage rather than a muggle one. It then would make more sense that given light of the situation I would be informed."

That made sense, I realized. I hadn't ever thought about it, but there weren't a lot of muggle orphans that went to Hogwarts. I suddenly felt very lucky, although there was still the bit about the fact we were broke. I opened my mouth, but this man seemed to already have anticipated what I would ask. Talk about a confusing mixture of brilliant and terrifying.

"For the remainder of the summer it had decided it would be in your best interest to stay here. As I understand they have sent for a healer to come and speak with you both about what happened, to which I offer my deepest apologies." I averted my eyes to the ground, my gut twisted uncomfortably. "In the mean time I have seen to it to personally retrieve funds from both of your parents' accounts, and in the case of Miss Devoise I have already taken care of the exchange. All that is left is for you both to go to Diagon alley and get new things. I am to understand everything was lost in the attack, and as such I made sure to retrieve extra so you could both get things that you need." Dumbledore gave us a knowing smile, but a frown had etched onto my face. Had he said both of our parents'?

"Sir-" I started, but Dumbledore cut me off before I could ask.

"I think, perhaps, you two have had enough of an eventful summer. I will offer my assistance, if either of you feel it is needed, to accompany you Diagon alley. But as I understand it one of you have very recently turned of age, and I offer you instead the chance to go alone. The choice is yours."

"We can make it." Sophie's voice cut clear. "I mean, we'll be fine by ourselves, sir."

Dumbledore nodded, pulling out two small bags from his robes and placing them in front of each of us. He bid us farewell, and left with some of his odd words of wisdom. I wasn't paying much attention as my brain swam with thoughts. He had said parents. Plural. I had never known where the money for my supplies came from, but had just assumed it came from a help organization much like the muggle one for children who couldn't afford things. It never occurred to me that Dumbledore might know who my parents were. Of course, the man probably knew everything, but still. I had never thought about it. I wasn't sure I wanted to now, either. I wasn't one of those children who desperately wanted some link to their past, to know who they were. Why would I? Doing that gave you the chance to be hurt, and to learn that perhaps your parents were dead they just didn't want you. I didn't want to know either way. Yet here I was, forced with the fact that apparently at least one parent was dead and had left me their funds. My head swam, and as Sophie stood up and offered me a hand so we could leave I shoved the thoughts away. Too much, I decided. It was all too much and I would deal with it later. With that last thought we were gone with a loud crack.

* * *

I don't think either of us had really wanted to be back in Diagon Alley so soon given what had happened. I didn't, and by the rapid pace Sophie made us keep I don't think she wanted to, either. We went back to the whole not talking thing, but I think it was more the environment than us stuck back in the funk. We took care of what we needed, first getting a new trunk, books, robes, and finally getting any must have supplies for classes. Sophie brought our things back and soon we found ourselves in muggle London, buying all new wardrobes. At first I was worried I wouldn't have enough, but after opening the purse full of funds Dumbledore had left I had been surprised. We'd switched the remainder to muggle money before we'd come to this side, and we'd probably been gone for a couple of hours. It was nice, and a bit freeing. Both of us were able to just forget and act like nothing had happened. We were in some shop, I hadn't caught the name but Sophie had seen some skirt in the window and had dragged us in. The prices were relatively inexpensive, so I couldn't complain. She was off trying on a pile of clothes, but I hadn't found much I would really wear here. As I was looking through the jewelry section I noticed a lone charm bracelet and smiled to myself as I picked it up. I recognized these charms, right now to the ruby red slippers. The wizard of Oz was something Sophie had practically forced under my nose the second she was done with it and had hastily snatched it back when I'd given it an okay review. She'd tutted and told me I was crazy, and I'd laughed and told her it was why we got along. The memory brought with it a warm of happy times, and I found myself taking the bracelet to the counter and paying for it. We all needed a reminder sometimes, right? I shoved it into my pocket before Sophie saw, and after she'd paid for her things we left and returned to our temporary home.

That night as we lay in the beds we were allowed to use, I looked over at Sophie. She seemed to be having as much trouble sleeping as I was, so I felt I was as good a time as any. "Hey, Sophie, you awake?"

"If I wasn't, I would be now. What?" Her voice was annoyed, but I had a feeling it had less to do with me. I got up from my bed and padded over to my new trunk, opening it and picking out the charm bracelet.

"Close your eyes!" Sophie let out an annoyed sound at my words, but I could see her smile as she did what I asked. I walked over and placed the bracelet into her hand. As her eyes opened, she gave it a look over. The smile widened as she began laughing, and I frowned in confusion. "If you don't like it it's fine, but you don't have to laugh at me!"

"No, no! Wait." She got up from her bed, going over to her trunk and pulling something out. She gave me a stern look before mimicking. "Close your eyes."

I did as she said, standing there with my eyes closed. I felt something cold and metal in my hand, and opened my eyes to look down. I couldn't help but laugh, either, as I stared down at a Bertie bots charm bracelet. "Did we really?"

Sophie nodded and we let out a series of giggles. Once we'd finally gotten a hold of ourselves, Sophie sat back down on her bed and patted the spot beside her.

"I was thinking about charming it somehow. So that I'd know if you were in danger. I just wasn't sure what to link it to." I looked at my best friend, and I realized why neither of us had been talking to each other these past two days. "I know a spell, found it in one of the books they have here. You just have to charm two objects. If one of the two objects is held by a person in distress, the other will glow and vice versa. I just… It's probably a silly idea…"

I picked up my bracelet, holding it up by a red colored bean. I realized, as she spoke, that we were both scared of losing each other. Over the years we'd developed a friendship that went past what most people had. She was my sister, in all but blood. The fear still there was the fear of what could have happened. "I think this one should do, don't you?"

She smiled at me, then. Looking at her bracelet she held up the ruby slippers. "And this would make an interesting companion piece."

She took out her wand, and said a spell. The two pieces glowed for a moment before returning to normal. I slipped on my bracelet to see her doing the same, and I felt very much like I did when she first entered the orphanage. "Alright, move over."

"Excuse me?" Sophie rose a brow at me, and I bumped her with my shoulder.

"I said move over. We're are going to rock this ten year old style where we share a bed and pretend it's a sleep over and that we're both not scared for our lives." I stated, and Sophie made a face.

"Ava, darling, I love you, but not like that." I pinched her and she let out a squeal.

"Oh shut up you cow, and scoot over. That isn't what I meant and you know it." In the end we'd there had been quite a bit of attacking each other with pillows before eventually we'd both ended up laying down in the bed. Sophie had enlarged it so there was actually room. Even though our backs were to each other and we weren't close each to touch, it was like her being there just made me sure she wasn't going to be ripped away. She was my family, my only family. Just as my eyes started to drift shut I heard Sophie speak up.

"Hey Ava?"

"Hm?"

"Thank you for coming with me. If you had died, I don't…" She let out a sniffle and I felt my own eyes tear up.

"It's okay. I'm okay. We're okay. Get some sleep, Sophie." We both slept soundly that night, for the first time in a while.


End file.
